Cleaning device



G. J. W. LEESON CLEANING DEVICE April 9, 196s 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledFeb. 3, 1966 IIA 116114 no 16 u2 April 9,'1968 Filed Feb. 5, 1966CLEANING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet :3,

5e so 52 54 i /72 7 fi?" 7 I/50 L 60 JA 1/46 IZ 7. n l T i l 92 92 48 il El 5 H4112 United States Patent() 3,377,123 CLEANING DEVICE GeorgeJoseph William Leeson, 86 Caroline St., South Yarra, Victoria, AustraliaFiled Feb. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 524,722 Claims priority, applicationAustralia, Mar. 12, 1965, 56,269/ 65 3 Claims. (Cl. 401-139) ABSTRACT FTHE DISCLGSURE A cleaning device suitable for cleaning motor vehicles,windows and similar surfaces comprises a telescoping hollow handlethrough which water is fed from a valve controlled hose connection atone end of the handle to a discharge nozzle located at the other end.The nozzle is mounted on a retaining plate for a cleaning pad and wateris discharged from the nozzle generally parallel with the cleaning padand laterally thereof so that a detergent may be applied to the padwithout being rinsed off by the water discharged from the nozzle. Theretaining plate is pivotally mounted so that the pad and nozzle can beadjusted to lie generally parallel with the axis of the handle or at anangle thereto. A squeegee blade is also pivotally mounted on theretaining plate.

This invention relates to a cleaning device, and more particularly to adevice suitable for cleaning motor vehicles, windows of dwellings, andsimilar surfaces.

There are many cleaning devices presently available for the abovepurposes, but these suffer from various disadvantages.

For example, they are not equipped with sufficiently long handles sothat in cleaning a motor vehicle it is necessary to ldrag a hose acrossthe surface of the vehicle or to take great pains to ensure that thehose will not scratch the vehicle. When such devices are used forwashing the windows of dwellings it is necessary to employ a ladder orsimilar means to enable the whole of the window surface to be reached.

Again such devices in general supply water to the surface to be cleanedby causing it to percolate through a brush, `cleaning pad, or similarmeans. This is unsatisfactory, firstly because it does not permit abroad section of the surface to be sprayed, and secondly because itcontinuously washes away any detergent being used with the cleaningdevice.

These prior art devices are also unsatisfactory in that a film of waterremains on the windows which eventually evaporates and leaves behindstains giving the windows an appearance of still being dirty.

Again prior art cleaning devices usually have a cleaning pad which has afixed angular relationship to a handle making them awkward to use andlacking in adaptability to the surfaces t0 be cleaned.

It is an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages of priorart cleaning devices, and to this end there is provided a cleaningdevice comprising a tubular handle adapted for connection at one end toa water supply and having a cleaning pad pivotally attached to its otherend in such manner that it may be located in a plane generally parallelto the axis of the handle, or in a plane at an angle to said axis.Preferably there is provided a squeegee blade adapted to move in unisonwith said cleaning pad between its operative positions.

Further according to the invention there is provided a cleaning devicecomprising a tubular handle adapted for connection at one end to a watersupply and having a water discharge orice at its other end, the oricebeing pivotally mounted in such manner that it may direct a lCC streamof water generally parallel to the axis of said handle or at an angle tosaid axis. Preferably the orifice is of the type having an outlet in theform of a slot and it is preferably connected to the tubular handle bymeans of a short length of plastic or other flexible tubing toaccommodate the relative pivotal movement.

Again the invention provides a cleaning device comprising a tubularhandle adapted for connection to a water supply at one end, and having awater discharge orifice and a cleaning pad attached to its other end,the arrangement being such that water discharged through said orificedoes not pass through the cleaning pad in order to reach a surface to becleaned.

In each of the forms of the invention above described the handle ispreferably telescopic and may be provided at its first-mentioned endwith a valve to control the flow of water. A length of small diameterflexible plastic tubing may be attached to said end to provide a lightweight connection between the cleaning device and a water hose.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood it will nowbe described by way of example with reference to a particular embodimentillustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE l is a general view of the cleaning device with one of itscleaning heads attached;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-Sectional view of one end of the device showing thedetails of the valve;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of an intermediate portion of thedevice showing the telescopic connection of the two parts of. thehandle;

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view of the other end of the device;

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 5 5 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a view taken on line 6*6 of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a detail view taken on line 7-7 of FIG- URE 5;

FIGURE 8 is a detail view taken on line 8 8 of FIG- URE 7;

FIGURE 9 is a perspective view of one form of cleaning pad suitable foruse with the device, and

FIGURE l0 is a perspective view of a second form yof cleaning padsuitable for use with the device.

The cleaning device of this embodiment comprises a tubular handle 10made from two lengths 12 and 14 of aluminium tubing one of which thedistal (in relation to the used of the device) length 12 is a sliding twithin the proximal length 14. A nut 16 screwed to the end `of length 14has a projecting externally screw threaded boss 18, the internaldiameter of which is a neat sliding fit on length 12.

A gland nut 20 engages boss 18 to compress a resilient annular ring 22for the purposes of holding the length 12 in a selected position inrelation to length 14 and to seal the joint against leakage of water.The inner end of the smaller-diameter tube 12 is expanded to prevent itswithdrawal through the gland nut 20.

To the other end of the larger-diameter tube section 14 there isscrew-threadedly attached a valve, generally indicated at 24, tocontrolthe flow of water. Valve member 26 within valve 24 is biasedtowards its closed position by means of a spring 28 and has a stem 30projecting from the valve body for engagement with an operating handle32.

The handle 32 is pivoted tothe valve body by means of a pair of links 34and is of L-shape, having a valve-stem engaging portion 36 and a portion38 which extends forwardly in generally parallel relationship to thebody of valve 24 for engagement by the fingers of a person using thedevice.

The valve body has an integrally cast inlet passage 40 to which'isconnected a length (approximately 6 ft.) of small bore plastic tubing42, which, at its free end, has a fitting 44 for attachment to thenormal end fitting on a garden hose. Fitting 44 preferably provides aswivel connection to facilitate screwing it onto the end fitting of thehose.

The free end of the smaller diameter handle section 12 is expanded intoa bell-mouth to retain an externally screw-threaded bush 46 having acentral annular shoulder 48. A lock-nut 50 on the proximal end of bush46 clamps the spring detent 52 and a U-shaped bracket 54 againstshoulder 48 (see FIGURE 4).

Bracket 54 is made of flat sheet metal and has two arms 56 projectingforwardly. Towards the outer end of each arm 56 there is provided adrilled hole for co-operation with a similar hole in a respective arm 58of a U-shaped bracket 60 fixed to a cleaning pad retaining plate 62,screws or bolts 64 being passed through the respective pairs of holes toform a pivotal connection.

One arm 58 is provided with two or more slots 66 adapted to co-operatewith a detent finger 68 projecting from L-shaped detent spring 52, tolocate the cleaning pad retaining plate 62, either in a positionparallel to the axis ofthe handle as shown in full lines in FIGURE 7, orin a position at an angle to said axis as shown in dotted lines inFIGURE 7.

The side edges 70 and the rear edges 72 of the cleaning pad retainingplate 62 are rolled under as can be seen in FIGURES 4 and 6 to form apocket into which a cleaning pad backing plate 74 is adapted to slide.The forward end of the cleaning pad retaining plate 62 is bent upwardlyat right angles as shown in FIGURE 4 to provide a bracket 76 which isformed with a central circular hole in which an externally screwthreaded bush 78, similar to bush 46, is mounted by means of a lock-nut80 which clamps bracket 76 against shoulder 82.

A nozzle 84 is mounted in the distal end of bush 78. The proximal end ofbush 78 is connected to the distal end of bush 46 by means of a shortlength of small bore plastic tubing 86, the connection at each end ofthe tubing having an internal rigid bush 88, a rubber ring 90surrounding tube 86 and bush 88, and a gland nut 92 to compress ring 90and cause it to clamp tubing 86 against the bush 88.

The cleaning pad may take either of the forms shown in FIGURES 9 and 10.That shown in FIGURE 10 is particularly adapted for cleaning motorvehicles. This cleaning pad 94 is approximately 4 square and 2 thick andis made of foamed plastic. To the rear surface of the pad there isattached, as by gluing, a stitfenin g plate 96 of very thin Celluloid ofsimilar non-scratching material. The stiffening plate 96 has dimensionsslightly smaller than those of the cleaning pad 94 and its purpose is toprevent excessive deflection of the pad in the plane parallel to thesurface to be cleaned.

The backing plate 74, of a size adapted to slide neatly into the pocketin retaining plate 62, is either glued to the stifening plate or is madeintegral therewith.

A lat-ch 98 pivotally mounted on lock-nut 80 is adapted to be rotated toa position in which it prevents withdrawal of the cleaning pad backingplate from the pocket, and for this purpose it is provided with aturned-over `portion 100 adapted to be manually grasped and a retainingfinger 102. These integers are best seen in FIGURE 6 wherein the latchis shown in the position in which it prevents withdrawal of the cleaningpad backing plate.

The form of cleaning pad shown in FIGURE 9 is particularly adapted tothe Washing of windows of dwellings. It is also made from foamed plasticand has dimensions of approximately 8" by 3 and a thickness of 1. Theback of this pad 104 is provided with a stiffening plate 106 and abacking plate 108.

The stiifening plate 106 is preferably curved as shown in FIGURE 9 sincethis improves the scrubbing action of the pad and also assists inpreventing deflection of its lateral edges when pressure is appliedduring use.

A U-shaped bracket 110 having a pair of rearwardly and upwardlyextending arms 112 is clamped between lock-nut and bracket 76. The arms112 pivotally support a U-shaped bracket having a pair of arms 114 andat the outer end of the bracket there is formed a holder 116 adapted toreceive and grip a squeegee 118 which may be a standard windscreen wiperblade.

The squeegee is shown in its operative position in FIG- URE 4 but may berotated about its pivotal connection to bracket when not required foruse to a position in which it lies against handle 10.

The nozzle 84 is arranged with its orifice slot 120 (sec FIGURE 6) in aplane at right angles to the surface of the cleaning pad so that thestream of water which it emits is in a plane generally parallel to thesurface of the pad. As will be obvious from the construction describedthe nozzle and the pad move in unison about the pivotal connection tothe U-shaped bracket.

In the use of the device for washing a motor vehicle the handle willgenerally be in its retracted condition as shown by the dotted lineposition of the pad in FIGURE l. The cleaing pad will be in its positionparallel to the axis of the handle when the roof and other uppersurfaces of the vehicle are being cleaned, and will be rotated throughan angle of approximately 30 when the vertical surfaces of the vehicleare being cleaned. The surface is first made wet by spraying water ontoit through the nozzle. A few drops of detergent are then placed on thecleaning pad and the latter is used to wash the vehicle thoroughly allover. A further high velocity jet of water is then sprayed onto thevehicle through the nozzle to clean off the detergent. If so desired thevehicle may then be dried by means of a chamois or soft cloth.

It should be noted that with the present invention water is used onlywhen it is required, and that during the shampooing operation the ow ofwater is discontinued in order to avoid washing away the detergent.

Further advantages of the invention reside in the fact that the padadapts itself readily to the contour of the surfaces on which it isbeing used, and the provision of the length of small bore plastic tubingto connect the device to a hose makes it unnecessary to support a heavyand relatively stiff hose during the washing operation.

The use of the device for washing the windows of a dwelling is generallysimilar to the above in that the surface is first made wet, thendetergent is applied to the cleaning pad for the washing operation,followed by removal of the detergent by means of further application ofwater. During these operations the cleaning pad will generally be in theposition wherein it is rotated through an angle of approximately 30 fromthe position wherein its surface is parallel to the axis of the handle.

At the conclusion of the above operations the cleaning pad is returnedto the position wherein it is parallel to the axis of the handle and thesqueegee is used to remove excess water from the surface. Thus no filmis left on the windows when they dry.

I claim:

1. A cleaning device comprising a tubular handle adapted for connectionat one end thereof to a water supply hose through a control valvemounted on the handle, a retaining plate, said retaining plate includinga pocket in the under surface thereof to receive the backing plate of acleaning pad, a first U-shaped bracket secured to and upstanding uponthe upper surface of said retaining plate, a second U-shaped brackethaving the legs thereof pivotally connected with the legs of said firstU-shaped bracket, a first bush extending through and secured to saidsecond U-shaped bracket in the part joining the legs thereof, meanssecuring the opposite end of said tubular handle to one end of saidfirst bush, a length of flexible tubing having one end thereof coupledto the other end of said first bush, means providing an upstandingbracket on said retaining plate forwardly of said U-shaped brackets andwhich is provided with an opening receiving a second bush, a nozzleconnected to the forward end of said second bush, said nozzle deliveringa spray in a direction generally parallel with but laterally of saidcleaning pad, means coupling the other end of said flexible tubing tothe rearward end of said second bush, and means for adjusting theangular position of said retaining plate and hence said cleaning pad andnozzle relative to said opposite end of said tubular handle at thepivotal connection between said rst and second U-shaped brackets.

2. A cleaning device as defined in claim 1 and which further includes asqueegee blade and means pivotally mounting said blade on said retainingplate so as to enable the blade to be moved into and out of its operableposition.

3. A cleaning device as defined in claim 1 wherein a length of smalldiameter flexible hose is interposed between said control valve andwater supply hose for imparting added flexibility to the control valveend of said handle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1914 Corbett 15-531 X 6/1924Spencer 15-531 X 9/1926 Parker 15-567 9/1952 Reed 15-544 X 1/1956 Payne15-588 12/1957 Davis 15-544 X 3/1962 Milhous 15-544 X FOREIGN PATENTS 4/1960 France. 11/1943 Italy.

15 CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

EDWARD L. ROBERTS, Examiner.

